5.15 Gone Girl Instead, despite Katherine’s spirit being expelled from Elena by the gypsy dagger the gang used to help Matt at the beginning of the season, her spirit lives on presumably in some hell dimension. This leaves the door open for her return (it’s not as if they need to sort the actress’s schedule out in order to bring her back) and, with every other character coming off more and more frustrating and unlikeable as the show progresses, that’s fine by me. This episode, for example, was a more than fitting send off in that it humanised Katherine more than ever while still allowing her to be the upfront, manipulative villain we’ve known her to be all of these years. It brought her journey with Nadia full circle at last, with mother and daughter finally finding peace just before dying, and even her relationships with Damon and Stefan were somewhat finished off. Because, as has been spoken about again and again by ardent fans and rapidly departing casual viewers alike, The Vampire Diaries really isn’t at its best right now. Katherine, despite being a relatively minor character for the show’s overall run, have been the sole element keeping things interesting and afloat and, through her presence, Stefan has also had something to do besides obsess over the tired central love triangle. Now that Elena has control over her body back and Damon has sworn to come clean, is all we have to look forward to yet more passive aggressive conversations about who’s better for who and who loves who more? The show would not necessarily improve with new love interests or new twists on old relationships – such as with Stefan and Caroline or Jeremy with the new witch – and what it needs to do is establish some area of interest outside of the love lives of these characters. That’s why Katherine’s arc has been so endlessly compelling, because she was a complicated character with more on her plate than her love for the Salvatore brothers and, by taking it back to her regret surrounding Nadia and away from her life-long obsession with Stefan here, we were reminded of that. All shippers have been scorned too many times at this point, and trying to keep them all happy at once is just dumbing the show down. Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, No Exit, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
